Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Police Chief Returns Stolen Medical Marijuana to Grower

When Thomas Davis, a Maine medical marijuana grower, discovered that his plants were stolen he made frantic calls to state representatives, the governor, the district attorney and the police. It's not that Davis was looking for someone to investigate the crime — he was looking for someone who could return the plants.

Davis reported the plants as being stolen. Police then questioned Aaron Pert, who admitted stealing the pot and recovered the plants in and held onto it for two days. The police weren't sure if they had the jurisdiction to release the marijuana back to Davis because of concerns over federal law.

However, Ellsworth Police Chief John DeLeo made the call to return the plants.The Bangor Daily News reports DeLeo felt the marijuana was legally Davis' as far as he was concerned.
However, keeping the pot outside of Davis' greenhouse rendered 85 percent of it unusable.

But he did see one positive outcome of the burglary — cooperation between medical growers and police.

David said: "It’s not the Wild West out here. I feel like most of what I’m salvaging is a chance to get this out to the public, to let people know they can’t target medical marijuana patients and growers. The police will protect us."